Hello Steemians, I am glad to post my second article here on Steemit. Though, I told my viewers that I wasn't familiar of the Blockchain technology before signing up on Steemit (in my very first article). Since then, I am researching even more on Cryptocurrencies and the Blockchain technology. The more I get into it, the more I am amazed. Blockchain is a very simple and secure technology and the best part is that we are in control of our data. Blockchain is making many things possible and solving many problems with the ad industry which we have today.
In this post, I point out the facts that
Why Facebook ads are unhealthy for you and your family. Each and everyone has noticed this fact at one point or another, but chose to ignore it, which we should not.
Let's just start by analyzing Facebook and its revenue model. All of us know that Facebook as a Social Network is a virtual platform to meet everyone we have ever known in our real life. This includes our family, friends and even professional contacts. It is interesting and surely seems to be a nice place, but it is just the tip of an iceberg and there is much more to it.
Ask yourself the following questions.
- Is Facebook an NGO?
- Does Facebook charge its users for the social networking services that it provides?
It probably does not. Facebook is a "for-profit" organization which is making real money. The recorded profit for Facebook in the year 2015 was $17,928 million dollars.
But how does facebook makes money, it's all free out there after all?
A very clear answer is with "Ads", Facebook shows its users ads and simply makes money out of it. Now, honestly, this is not bad and even useful sometimes. As per my interests, I am being shown an advertisement and no one is forcing me to buy anything, so I am kind of using all these services for free. A few intelligent lads have also installed Adblock so that they don't have to see each and every ad out there on the web while exploring all these websites, so they are outsmarting the ad industry. But this is more complicated than you think.
Let's explore this iceberg even more below the water. Well, it looks like that it is not just the ads by which Facebook makes its money. It's the actual data which is making them bigger profits. But what kind of data and where does this data come from? It is your personal data and it comes from you. You are tirelessly proving these companies all the data willingly and unwillingly. How? Let's have a look at the following scenarios:
- What do you think your mobile phones sending your locations via GPS is for? Wherever you go, you are checking in, letting Facebook know what are the places you visit often. You are even providing your feedback, whether you liked visiting there or not.
- You are even letting these social networks know what you liked there and what didn't you like. For example, you have visited a Restaurant, you checked in and ordered Mushroom Pizza and posted a photo online saying "Wow, these guys always make a great pizza here, I loved it as always.". Okay facebook now knows it, it has recorded your expression and feelings and lets say 20 other users does the same as you did and 5 of them were not so happy with their visit and they also let the world know by simply uploading their expression on Facebook.
Now Facebook has this mass information and can now sell it to the interesting parties for a profit. Now these interesting parties can be other Restaurants, Pizza Cheese producers, Health Organizations or more. The same data can be sold to many interesting parties which was generated by you at the first place and a profit is being made on it without you even knowing it. - They know when you sleep, when you wake up, to whom you talk more on the phone, about what you talk etc. There is a free app for everything today.
- Companies like Amazon, know what you buy, what you sell and how much money you make.
So, after making so much profit out of your data, does Facebook pay you even a single penny for your services? No, it does not. Where does all this money go? It goes into their pockets.
This is how social media is monetizing you without you even knowing it. Have a look at this infographic to know more about what kind of services Facebook provide to large corporations.
Another example is your take (or reaction) on social issues and the intensity of your take on an issue. This can be reflected by whatever you post online, in the form of video, photo, article or just a status message on FB or Whatsapp. These companies probably know much more about you than your parents.
Your expressions, your feedback, your each and every action is being recorded and are worth dollars to the Corporations. Large Corporations and Governments are continuously paying social networks for all of this information which is sometimes called "Social Media Reaction" to know the thoughts of masses and accordingly make their next move.
You are kind of working for these companies for free and you don't even know it.
Your habits are being monetized by the Social Networks by showing you the advertisements as per the data collected by them.
Now, comes the hard part, the sensitive information, maybe about your medical condition or let's say your addiction which you won't want anyone to know about. Let's say it is about your alcohol addiction which you are continuously fighting.
The moment you go online, you are seeing ads about alcohol consumption, maybe about a new bar in your neighborhood or a new drink being launched or simply order bottles that are just a click away. Some lads won't even care about this.
Now imagine that your kid or a sibling is fighting this bad habit and is continuously being inspired by such ads on his mobile phone and computer to buy more, drink more and you don't even know this.
The recent real-life example is the Blue Whale challenge which teenagers were playing and dying without their families having any clue about what was going on until it was too late.
To generate revenue, facebook along with other social networks are tied to work on this model. These are the crazy parts of Advertisement industry, you are no longer in control. Blogger, Tumblr, Pinterest, Google, Twitter, all of them are following the same model. Nothing is actually free out there. The Free actually costs you more than you could think of. You are being monetized even if you don't click on a single ad that is being shown to you.
This is how the ad companies survive and sadly they are feeding on us rather than serving us. Think of the same happening to your kids or siblings, they want to leave a bad habit, but cannot, because some company somewhere is making a profit out of it, and the Social Networks which has now the virtual copy of "you" will keep on inspiring you to go for it as its profitable for them. This scenario will worsen with time. The more powerful they become, the more sophisticated they'll become.
These companies basically provide the "Data Collection Services". You are their "products". The Corporations and the Governments are actually their "Customers" who are paying them for their services (real data, mass surveys and sales inspired by ads).
Still no hard feelings, but maybe it is time to take back control of our data. Technology cannot be stopped, things must go on but we need to be more aware of what is happening to our data. Blockchain based solutions are best for this task in which we ourselves are in control of our data. Blockchain based solutions like busy.org, steemit.com, Akasha Project should be opted an promoted. Busy.org is a social network app based on Steem blockchain. Our data is worth something and we are the ones who should control it and be paid for it.
Thanks for reading.